Chapter 145: Chapter 145: Tag team training + Dawn's decision.
"DAMN IT!" A green furry hand with sharp claws slammed the laboratory table, shattering the only piece of working furniture around there.
Jackal breathed heavily as his experiment failed… again! His horrendous, 2 meter tall figure with green fur all over his body, two big-goblin-like ears , dark green mane on his neck, and a digitigrade leg was barely visible inside the dark room.
The awful septic smell assaulted his nose on a daily basis. The 5-meter small space was his sleeping, eating, experimenting, and studying place. This sewer was no place for a human to stay, but Jackal needed to live here as he was Wanted in the outside world at the moment.
"TAROT!!!!" He yelled as loud as he could, his voice resounding inside the hollow tunnels of the underground sewer he was living in.
First, it was Osborn and then Tarot. There was too much interference for him to complete his hybridized experiments. He couldn't go to the outside world any longer as Tarot was hunting him.
Although Ryan had been keeping the Jackal matter on the downlow, SHIELD managed to find out about the Jackal's crime and had put out a search mission for the man.
"BETRAYERS!"
Jackal screamed as he huffed heavily.
Due to the Jackal breaking the table, the prototype serum that he was working on had fallen on the ground, however it didn't break as the serum was stored inside a vial made of tempered glass.
Pushing his anger down, he planned his next move. He picked up the serum labeled <Tiger> on it and put it inside of his pant's pocket and walked away on his legs which looked like a hyena's.
"I need more samples…"
The spider serum he had created had some problems. The people that were injected with it will turn into brainless humanoid spiders instead of a hybrid of human and animal. And because he loved his niece very much, he couldn't let her personality disappear when he injected her with the serum.
He kept mumbling a single sentence as he disappeared in the dark tunnel.
Ryan had been looking everywhere for the Jackal starting from his last known location in Texas, near the Roxxon Oil Company headquarters. He had already done a worldwide scan for the man, but he forgot one thing: It's always the darkest underneath the lighthouse.
Traveling through the sewer line, Raymond quietly came out of the manhole in the streets under the cover of the dark night. He was near the Midtown school when he exited, and there, he searched for his next targets.
***
Inside Ryan's penthouse, Stark finally woke up from the anesthesia that was given to him before his surgery.
Barely 2 minutes had passed on the clock after he woke up, Tony staggered toward the living room to meet Pepper. He walked using the IV drip stand as a support as he was feeling weak as lingering anesthesia drugs were still inside his system.
"Peps, look, the hole in my chest is now gone," Tony said cheerily as he was finally able to find where Pepper was.
"Tony!" Pepper was surprised when she saw the man and ran toward him. She gave him her shoulder so Tony can use it as a support. Tony's chest was bare, so she was able to see that the hole on his chest is already gone now, leaving a thin vertical scar.
"WHAT ARE-"
Pepper wanted to yell at Tony for not prioritizing his recuperation, however she stopped as she saw the doctor coming toward them.
"I know that you were excited Tony, but your body is still weak but Your body still needs some rest before you can walk around," Kai reminded the patient who had run away from the recuperating room the moment he woke up.
"Sit there," Kai pointed toward a sofa. Pepper helped Tony so that he could move toward the sofa without any difficulties.
"You're 100% healed. Congratulations Tony," Kai said calmly as he handed Tony a small vial containing the shrapnel that was inside his body.
He could've healed Tony before, using his healing energy or Ryan's magic, but because Tony believed in science a bit too much. That's why Ryan needed to convince him by showing the uses of the scientific aspect of MediQuick instead of promising other easy ways to fix him.
"This small thing…I couldn't believe that this thing almost killed me," Tony said as he shook the small glass vial, making the shrapnel hit the glass.
"Yeah, that's the human's body allright. Even smaller things than that could kill us," Kai said.
"Tony, how are you feeling right now?" Pepper asked with concern clear in her voice.
"I feel…free," Tony said as he smiled sincerely toward Pepper. He held her hand and rummaged inside his pocket. Then, he took out a small ring and put it on her finger.
"Peps, will you-"
"Usually people ask that first before putting on the ring, but sure. I'll marry you!"
Pepper hugged Tony tightly as tears could already be seen inside her eyes. She knows how difficult it was for Tony to face his mortality and do the surgery. But he did it anyway for her and the baby.
That was when she realized that Tony would do anything for them. It's hard for her to say no after recognizing his efforts – not that she had any plan to reject him.
"Wait a sec…" Pepper realized something important as she noticed that all of Tony's belongings were still in a pile next to where she was sitting earlier. His wallets, keys, Mark 7 sensor, all of it was with her as she confiscated them all before his surgery.
"Did you just take this out of your pocket? " Pepper asked while pointing toward the ring that she was wearing now"
"He brought this ring into the surgery room, despite my warnings," Kai chided, giving Tony more trouble.
But he won't tell Pepper how exactly the ring managed to pass her search. Otherwise she would be reluctant to wear it without washing it.
"What warning? When did you warn me?" Tony tried to play innocent, but Pepper was already mad.
"By the way, where is Ryan? How come he is not here?" Tony asked quickly to change the topic before Pepper exploded.
"He is in the Avenger Tower now…or so I think? He will be overtaking your work until you are fully healed," Kai explained.
"Why is he doing that? Did something happen?" Tony asked in a worrying tone as he was afraid that some bad thing might have happened while he was out. He tried to stand up and reach for his phone to check up on the situation, but Kai cut off his spiraling before he could go any further.
"Nothing bad happened Tony. He had brought some equipment there to set up. He said he will be finished even before you are full of energy," Kai explained with a grin.
"Ahh…he didn't wait for me then," Tony said and looked at the baby bump on Pepper's stomach. He wanted to curse, 'That slippery bastard', but he cut his sentence short as he didn't want the baby to hear bad words...not yet at least.
Ryan didn't want him to exhaust himself from doing heavy work as he just finished his operation, that's why he will do it on his own, with Gwen beside him.
"Wait for you to do what?" Pepper asked curiously.
"The training simulator," Tony answered casually. Bruce, Tony and Ryan had created a 4-D simulation room that can mimic any environment in the world.
Built with durable materials, the room could withstand the might of the enhanced humans, gods, and the green monster running wild inside of it. The new room will become a training room for the Avenger members for the foreseeable future.
Inside the Avenger Tower.
"Hulk SMASH!"
Hulk was wreaking havoc inside the simulator, killing the training robots that were designed by Ryan to adapt to their combat pattern. Although Hulk was winning previously, now his fight is becoming harder.
"PUNY ROBOT!" Hulk slammed his palm together, causing a massive shockwave that knocked down all the robots encircling him.
"Nice Job Hulk, now the calibration test is complete," Ryan waltzed beside the fuming beast while reading the tablet.
"Grrr-" Hulk looked angrily toward Ryan, but then he saw a chocolate bar handed to him.
"Here, your reward," Ryan said.
"Not enough," Hulk said gruffly as he snatched the bar and throwed it inside his mouth.
"I have a truckload of chocolate coming in, or do you want to swim inside a melted chocolate pool?" Ryan asked casually.
"Stop coddling him," Steve said in exasperation. He already noticed that Ryan treated the green monster with extreme callousness, despite Hulk being able to kill him with one slap. –(Hulk wishes)
"Hmph-" Hulk growled at Steve before he replied to Ryan. "CHOCOLATE SWIMMING POOL!"
"Okay, it'll be ready in one hour…also Hulk…are you sure you won't get fat?" Ryan teases Hulk as he patted the monster's flabby stomach. It was still muscular but Ryan noticed a layer of fat there.
"This is because Hulk can't smash!" Hulk defended himself as he stomped angrily away. He kept eating without smashing, so he had put on a bit of weight. But in his defense when he exercised with the robots earlier, he was able to lose some of his fat tummy.
Hulk was like a living furnace made of gamma radiation. His metabolism was pretty inhuman, and he needed to eat a lot to maintain his Hulk state.
As Banner gives him time to come out, Hulk has learned a few more words and now he can carry longer conversations. Slowly, the side of the Hulk's consciousness is becoming stronger.
But after gaining each other's trust, Hulk didn't try to take the wheel from Banner, and changed their come out time following the schedule.
Banner also noticed some nice perks such as if Hulk comes out when he is going to sleep, then he doesn't need to cover up the lack of sleep Hulk caused, and can go on with his daily life without any change in his quality of life.
"Captain, do you want to test it out?" Ryan said as he reset the simulator. The broken robots made of hard light dissipated and a new team of combat robots appeared inside the room.
"Sure," Captain answered shortly and he held his shield in his left hand. Wearing a training suit instead of his captain america suit, Steve gestured that he was ready.
Ryan pressed the start button on his tablet, and Captain America leaped toward the robots, trying to deal the first blow.
"Captain, are you sure you don't need to go back to SHIELD?" Ryan asked while Steve was in battle.
"No, until the Tarot problem is over, Natasha, Barton and…uhhh," Captain hit the robot on the head with the edge of his shield, decapitating it. "... will stay here in the Avenger Tower."
"Oh, that's great," Ryan replied as he increased the intensity of the practice.
"How can SHIELD let you go so easily?" Ryan asked again while the Captain was in battle.
"Simple…we simply…stopped going," Steve said as he kicked the last robot down, finishing his combat assessment.
"Damn that's cool," Ryan muttered underneath his breath after seeing the captains practice play.
"We should get the others for a team battle. That way we can get the data for the team," Steve suggested to Ryan.
The aim of this exercise was to help them understand each other better during the battle. It would be useless if he did it alone.
"Already one step ahead of you," Ryan said. The door to the simulator opened, and the rest of the members walked inside the room.
"Captain, you're already done?" Barton asked as he nocked an arrow into his bow.
"Didn't you have an endless stamina cap?" Natasha said teasingly as she held a baton on each of her hands.
"Isn't that you?" Barton smirked toward Natasha.
"Yeah, she can even do a 9 hour long battle," Steve teased. The incident in the medical room was already known to everyone inside the tower despite Bruce's effort to prevent it.
It's rare to get a chance to tease Natasha, so the duo was snickering. However, Natasha glared at them while charging her electric baton, causing them to stop. She will definitely make some mistakes during the battle, causing the duo some trouble.
"Put the training intensity to the highest level. They need it," Natasha ordered Ryan.
"Errr," Ryan looked at Steve and Barton. "Okay," He did what he was told and saw the sorry figure of the duo.
"That's why you should never piss off a woman," Ryan gulped as he watched the pitiful battle.
…
In the underworld.
"Hey Hela, want some tea?" Dawn said as he poured some tea in the spot he was sitting, 100 meters away from Hela. She kept her eyes closed as she sat on the stone throne, still ignoring Dawn even though it has been over 10 days since he waited for her to talk to him.
During the 10 days, Dawn had tempted her with various stuff, all which seemed like his voice went over her head as she kept ignoring him.
"Hela-san do you want some coke?"
"Sir Hela of the nine realm, do you want some chocolate?"
"Mistress Hela, please help me..I'm dying!"
He tried various things, but Hela didn't open her eyes even for a second.
Hela was pissed on the inside. It initially started with a feeling of sadness and heartbreak, but when he kept annoying her, the feeling gradually changed.
Finally, after breaking into the 11th day, Hela had enough of it.
"Stop Dawn! Get lost!" She yelled at him as she snapped her eyes open.
Dawn smirked as his plan finally worked.
"I will, when you tell me what is going on with you?" Dawn asked her with a calm tone.
Hela realized she was tricked, and her pupils shook.
"Dawn…it seemed that…you will only go away when you know about this…So I will tell you," Hela said solemnly, finally deciding to chase away Dawn from here. She held her hand open, and took something out from her body.
She knew that the islanders depend on Dawn, and she didn't want to hold him here any longer than necessary. He had been here for 11 days, and he had proved his loyalty toward her – she knows that but she doesn't want to accept that as a reality anymore.
Her thoughts have changed drastically as she stayed on the island. Otherwise, she won't even care about the islanders. She kinda misses them, especially the midget trio that followed her around the island.
"Ahh," Dawn had a realization as Hela showed Dawn the pokemon's soul that was trapped with Hela. The innocent soul was dancing on top of her palm, seemingly to adore her very much.
"So…that's why you cut off all contact," Dawn muttered as he approached her and stopped when he was directly in front of her.
"Are you afraid that I will hate you for this?" Dawn asked Hela with a sincere tone. He was torn. How could he let the souls stay here…in this empty…desolate…underworld?
Hela saw the complicated look Dawn had on his contorted face. Her hands shivered slightly but she steeled herself with her decision.
"I'll ask you again Dawn…renounce your vows toward me…don't let any more innocent soul trapped inside this place of punishment…"
"Hmmm…" Dawn racked his brain to think of an answer as to why the souls had come here. Then, he looked at Hela's worried face. Although she tried to hide it, Dawn can read her emotions perfectly.
"Ahh, the place of punishment…"Sudden realization dawned upon him. Hela looked at him weirdly after his sudden exclamation. She didn't think that the word was too hard for him to understand, so she wondered why he repeated it.
"Are you sure that this is still the place of punishment?" Dawn asked Hela and calmly explained trying to guide her to his understanding.
"The underworld is a place where souls go, but Odin betrayed you and sealed you inside this place. This … Hel."
Hela seemed to react at Odin's name, and furrowed her brows.
"This place was cut off from Asgard's jurisdiction, and became yours instead…"
"Cut to the chase Dawn," Hela snapped.
"What I mean was…maybe this place was no longer the place souls come to be punished," Dawn said as he pointed to the thriving life at the edge of their eyesight, near the castle Dawn gave to her.
"Maybe…some souls come here…to be taken care by you," Dawn said comfortingly as he held Hela's hand, causing the souls to float excitedly around the couple. Dawn led Hela toward the growing forest inside the underworld.
" I don't know about this very much, as I am new with my divinity. But I think that this is where they wanted to go," Dawn said as the souls started to separate from them and enter the thick forest they were standing in.
"Dawn…"
"Also, to answer your earlier question…"
Dawn locked eyes with Hela while they were holding hands.
"I won't renounce my vows. Not now…not ever," Dawn said decisively, causing Hela's mind to shake. The chain around her heart to never trust another person again was unlocked, and that was when, she accepted this fact;
Dawn will be there for her…and he will always be there for her.
Something changed on the inside of Hela as the power of death that was inside of her body is no longer keeping her mind twisted. It will be hard for her to get back to normal, but she was finally able to reach the starting line.
Dawn heard the sound of his quest that's been completed but he already abandoned the quest inside his heart a long time ago.
The quest was:
Fenris: Take care of Hela like I did. Be there for her like I did. Allow her to have fun, and if you can…save her.
Quest: Let Hela acknowledge your existence as someone worthy of living.
Reward : Broken piece of a God's Kingdom (Realm)
"Thank you…for not abandoning me," Hela said as her mind cleared up for the first time in a long , long time.
Dawn smiled at her and they stood there for a while before they get back to the castle. Dawn and Hela both used the nerve gear glasses to connect to the island as Dawn planned to stay there for a few more days.
He already knew what was happening inside the island from Ryan, but the restless islanders wouldn't stay calm if he didn't visit the island in the near future.
"It's DEER GODS!" A child on the island screamed as Dawn and Hela suddenly spawned inside the island square.
"Wait, God Hela is back?" Mia said as she heard the yelling.
Mia, Sive, and Dotty ran to the island square to greet the gods. Suddenly, Sive couldn't hold her emotions and tried to hug Hela's projection.
Hela was surprised as the islanders knew that she couldn't be touched. However…
"Welcome back Hela! We missed you!" Sive hugged the projection, causing the islander to open their mouths in surprise.
"What?" Hela was startled. She turned to Dawn for an answer.
"Ryan had upgraded the projection, allowing you to touch stuff around the island."
Using hard light technology, the projection could do anything the human's can do with a physical body. Ryan also upgraded the projection to allow a sense of touch, smell, hearing, and temperature.
Hela turned to Sive that was nuzzling on her stomach as she was too short to reach any other place. Hela smiled for the first time in front of the islanders ,she crouched her tall body, and hugged Sive back.
It had been a long time since she felt the warmth of another being that truly loved her.
"Welcome Home Hela," Dawn welcomed her.
"I am home," Hela said while flashing a sincere smile.
*******************************
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